With the last two vacancies now being filled in Las Vegas and Arizona, all 10 head coaching openings for the 2026 season are secured. The head coaching carousel was a wild one this year, as getting to 10 openings is definitely on the high end.
Typically, 5-7 openings are more in the 'normal' range, but teams definitely felt like change needed to come. Nearly one-third of the league will have a new head coach on the sideline for 2026 and beyond, which is just crazy turnover.
And it also goes to show you just how dysfunctional teams can be. Not only were there a lot of openings this cycle, but long-time head coaches in Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh either stepped down or were fired. If the head coaching cycle this year is any indication, the rest of the 2026 offseason could be flat-out wild. Let's power rank the 10 head coaching vacancies as the offseason approaches. Our basis for the rankings will be projected 2026 success, and if the style of coach fits what the franchise needed.
Power ranking the NFL head coaching vacancy hires for the 2026 offseason
10. Mike LaFleur - Arizona Cardinals
Matt LaFleur's brother, Mike LaFleur, gets his first shot to be a head coach, but it's with the Arizona Cardinals, and there might not be a team in a worse overall spot than the Cards. Kyler Murray's status with the team seems unclear at best, and the NFC West might just be the best division in football. You get the sense that Arizona had many other candidates in mind, as they were the last time to settle on a coach.
LaFleur does obviously come from a sharp offensive-minded tree in the NFL, but the path to success for this team feels like a mountain no one can climb, and I am almost wondering if there were candidates who simply did not want this job given the circumstances.
9. Jeff Hafley - Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins fired Mike McDaniel after a four-year stint that included two postseason berths, but no playoff wins. The Dolphins have since turned to the defensive-minded Jeff Hafley, a coach who was most recently with the Green Bay Packers as the team's defensive coordinator in the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
Before that, Hafley was a 22-26 coach in the 2020-2023 seasons at the collegiate level at Boston College. Hafley doesn't have the most impressive resume, and while his tenure with the Packers was solid, that defense also had a ton of talent, so I am not sure this hire was the best of them all.
8. Mike McCarthy - Pittsburgh Steelers
I actually do not mind the Mike McCarthy hire, as the Pittsburgh Steelers did go in a totally different direction from their prior coaching hires, and McCarthy has a two-decade span in the NFL of being a sharp, consistent offensive mind. That's really been what Pittsburgh has been missing. If McCarthy and his staff can put a legitimate plan in place at QB, the Steelers will once again emerge as contenders, but the low-ceiling that Mike McCarthy may bring as a head coach at this stage of his career is a valid concern.
7. Kevin Stefanski - Atlanta Falcons
Kevin Stefanski and the Cleveland Browns desperately needed a fresh start, and it's not a shock to see Stefanski landing on his feet with the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons have needed some QB consistency for years, and if nothing else, Michael Penix Jr looked rather solid in 2025. If Stefanski can get the most out of Penix, which is reasonably likely, the Falcons won't need much else to compete - the defense is already rock-solid, and Stefanski is a two-time Coach of thre Year, but some argued that he should have taken a year off from coaching to reset, so his name does feel a bit stale in that regard.
6. Todd Monken - Cleveland Browns
Todd Monken was a solid hire for the Cleveland Browns, a team that needs some stability on the offensive side of the ball. Monken was most recently with the Baltimore Ravens as the offensive coordinator from 2023-2025. In the 2023 and 2024 seasons, Ravens' QB Lamar Jackson was on another planet - he threw for 65 touchdowns against just 11 interceptions and honestly should have won the MVP in 2024.
Monken's offenses air it out at a high level, so that offensive genius could precisely what Cleveland needed.
5. Klint Kubiak - Las Vegas Raiders
The son of Gary Kubiak, Klint Kubiak will depart from Seattle to become the Las Vegas Raiders' next head coach. Kubiak commanded the Seahawks' offense in 2025 and obviously has the past history and NFL blood to succeed as a head coach. The Raiders are also very likely to take Fernando Mendoza with the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. This feels like, finally, a solid hire for Vegas.
4. Joe Brady - Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills situation was a bit odd, to say the least. After the team's Divisional Round loss to the Denver Broncos, it felt like the floodgates opened, and not in a good way. The team fired Sean McDermott after nearly a decade and had a pretty disastrous press conference with GM Brandon Beane and Terry Pegula.
The head coaching search led them to land on Joe Brady, who was already with the team. Many wondered why Buffalo did hire an outsider given the team's continual playoff failures, but Brady is a sharp offensive mind and was doing wonders with Josh Allen and the Bills offense since his arrival in 2022. This feels like a solid hire, as no one would be shocked if the Bills didn't skip a beat.
3. Jesse Minter - Baltimore Ravens
Jesse Minter was with the Baltimore Ravens from 2017-2020 and is obviously well entrenced in the Harbaugh coaching tree, spending time on both Jim and John's staffs over the years. Minter has been highly-regarded as a top-tier defensive mind who already had solid relationships in the Ravens facilities. The Ravens do need a bit of a reset on defense, but the team already has a high-end offensive infrastructure in place with Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry. The Ravens should instantly be a better team in 2026.
2. Robert Saleh - Tennessee Titans
Robert Saleh quickly earns his second head coaching stint after a bit of a wild tenure as the New York Jets head coach. After that tenure, he returned back to the San Francisco 49ers as the team's defensive coordinator. A huge reason why I believe the Saleh hire is going to work out is because defensive success follows him, and his decision to hire Brian Daboll as the offensive coordinator to pair up with Cam Ward is one that is going to work out in a big way.
Daboll has worked well with younger QBs in prior seasons like Josh Allen earlier in his career, and Jaxson Dart in 2025. The former Giants' head coach is going to get the most out of Ward in 2026, and Saleh's steady defensive presence is going to have an immediate impact on the Titans' unit,
1. John Harbaugh - New York Giants
The best hire of the 2026 head coaching cycle, and our no. 1 coach in our power rankings, is John Harbaugh with the New York Giants. There are teams in the NFL that simply need stability, period. Teams like the Giants, New York Jets, and a couple of other clubs have gone through a plethora of head coaches and continue to be the epitome of dysfuction.
With Harbaugh, the Giants now have a proven winner and someone who can stabilize things for a 5-7 year period. Fortunately for the Giants, the roster already has quite a few pieces that indicate major success could be on the horizon, but they've been missing a head coach to help it all come together.
Harbaugh's tenure with the Baltimore Ravens got a bit stale, as the early playoff exits just continued to disappoint, but a new beginning for the Giants and the veteran head coach could quickly turn into the G-Men making the playoffs nearly every year. At some point, teams have to top hiring first-time head coaches if they continually fail to work out.
The Giants got serious and brought in someone who knows how the NFL works. This is a home-run hire.